Ooh look, covers!

Isn't this gorgeous? It's my next Spice Brief, A GENTLEWOMAN'S PLEASURE, due out in February 2012, and the story of Lucy Dawson, bespectacled spinster, who has a delicious adventure when she falls off her bicycle. And almost straight into the arms of a hunky and mysterious woodsman called Ethan...

Read an excerpt here.

This one's my own creation, the cover for my soon to be released Christmas/Winter story, FIRE AND ICE. It's a self published version of a story that was previously in an anthology, and it's all about super efficient P.A. Cally, who's head over heels in love with her gorgeous boss, Innes. Christmas, a dose of 48 hour flu, and a broken central heating system all conspire to bring the two of them together... and their working relationship will never be the same again!

Read an excerpt here.

Neither of these two choice items are available quite yet, but check back here for the latest news, or follow me on Twitter for updates.

My Dear Holmes: A Study in Sherlock - Gavin Brend

My Dear Holmes: A Study in Sherlock by Gavin Brend

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a fantastic little book. Written decades and decades ago, it's a fascinating example of the author's love for Sherlock Holmes and his adventures; extreme and intense scholarly study of the canon; and a tour de force of brain thrashing and text/date/fact wrangling in pursuit of 'The Great Game' ie. treating Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson as real historical figures, and presenting a coherent timeline of their cases.

That people play this game is a tribute the compelling and beloved characters that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created. They're so much larger than life, and fiction, that they seem real. But it does make me smile at, and at the same time deeply admire, the lengths to which Holmes scholars will go to 'make things fit'. Gavin Brend has done an outstanding and very readable job of assigning cases to years and filling in gaps between cases. It's a triumph of detective work in itself, picking through textual clues and cross referencing them. His own writing style is humorous and a little quaint in places, but this book is 60 years old, so his voice is bound to be different to that of someone approaching the topic now.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this small volume. But I'm left thinking how much easier life would have been - although far, far less challenging - for Holmes' students if Sir Arthur had worked with a rigorous content and continuity editor throughout the years he was writing about the Great Detective.

But maybe it's better this way, better that Sir Arthur often completely forgot what he'd written in an earlier story, and frequently perpetrated gaffes with dates, times, places... because playing The Great Game must have brought almost as much pleasure to people as reading the stories themselves does. :)

My Dearest Holmes - Rohase Piercy

My Dearest Holmes by Rohase Piercy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was intrigued by this item, a gay interpretation of the great friendship between Holmes and Watson, and I wasn't quite sure what I was going to make of it when I first started reading. I've always thought there was a deep and powerful bond between the two men, but I wasn't sure I liked the idea of it being more than that.

However, when I got into the story, I was very pleasantly surprised. The writing is excellent, and despite the obvious differences from the canonical, the voice is believable and very much in the Watson style. The period detail, and the nods to the original stories are also very well done, and with a light hand rather than ladled on.

It's very much a romance between the two men, dealing with Watson's unrequited feelings for his brilliant friend as much as his desire for him. It's not a work of erotica, and love scenes are 'off camera', with the focus on the angst and yearning of Watson, and the heartache of being in love with a man who doesn't show emotion and has difficulty even feeling it. The author does a really good job of conveying Watson's anguish, and the result makes for a sincere and moving read.

The House of Silk

The House of Silk: The New Sherlock Holmes Novel by Anthony Horowitz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Enjoyed this very much. I've only read the Sherlock Holmes canon once, and I must admit that most of my perception of Holmes and Watson comes from watching the wonderful television series starring Jeremy Brett, but based on that, The House of Silk felt 'right' to me as a Holmes story. The voice of Watson rang true for me, and the style, characterisation and construction of the story seemed similar to the original stories. The plot rattled along nicely, and even though I sussed out some of what was going on fairly early in the proceedings, there were still things that surprised me about the final denouement[s].

I've seen some reviews where the author is taken to task for some inconsistencies between House of Silk and the original Sherlock Holmes stories and timeline, but Sir Arthur himself sometimes mixed things up a bit, and was inconsistent, so I do wonder if the 'slip ups' in this new story are perhaps an affectionate nod to the occasional oddities in the original canon.

WOMEN IN LUST - out now

WOMEN IN LUST - EDITED BY RACHEL KRAMER BUSSEL

At its best, lust is intense, all-consuming, leaving you breathless, able only to focus on slaking that urgent need. The characters in Women in Lust give in to that pure, overpowering impulse for sex. Whether watching a lover playing guitar, using a webcam, going out for a smoke or simply embracing a chance encounter, these women seize the opportunities presented to them, and savor the lovers who teach them about themselves and help them open up to new sensual possibilities. These women embrace lust even when it makes them do things they might consider reckless. Sometimes the object of their lust is not the "right" person—a woman falls for her best friend's boyfriend, the ultimate taboo. Or desire itself may be maddening when it teases and taunts. Rachel Kramer Bussel has brought together top erotica authors who know exactly what to do with those burning desires.

With contributed stories by Portia Da Costa, Charlotte Stein, Aimee Pearl, Clancy Nacht, Elizabeth Coldwell, Lucy Hughes, Del Carmen, Jen Cross, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Brandy Fox, Amelia Thornton, Kin Fallon, Aimee Herman, Jacqueline Applebee, Kayar Silkenvoice, Olivia Archer, Justine Elyot, K.D. Grace, Shanna Germain, and Donna George Storey.

This saucy anthology is out now for your delectation, and includes my story NAUGHTY THOUGHTS, which seems to be gaining some favourable comments in some of the book's Amazon reviews.

You can read an excerpt from Naughty Thoughts here and check out the collection via Amazon links.

New from Sasha White

Here's a hot new release from my Walk on the Wild Side Books buddy, Sasha White. Super sexy science fiction... check it out!

Mavericks of Space Anthology

This is the re-release of the erotic science fiction short story ABDUCTION and it’s sequel TRANSPLANT. 

ABDUCTION

When Max Cooper, a “damaged” ex-Coast Guard officer, wakes up naked in a strange bed with no memory of how he got there, “alien abduction” is not what pops into his head.

It’s Captain Tyla Natori’s job to bring males from other worlds back to her own female-dominated planet to be put “on the market.” When she finds a perfect male speciman in the form of Max Cooper, however, she decides he’s the one for her…and he has no choice in the matter…

Or does he?

TRANSPLANT

Max made his choice to stick with Tyla and become a Transplant on Triton. Only things aren’t going too smoothly, right from the start. Max wants to be Tyla’s only lover, and for a Triton woman, monogamy is unheard of. Then there’s the fact that the queen’s ordered Tyla to marry a Durian prince in order to prevent a war.

Nothing brings two people closer together than facing a common foe, but can Max and Tyla stop the marriage and still prevent a war?

Abduction: 6,700 words Transplant: 6,591 words

Please note: These stories have been previously published, separately, and with a different cover. They contains explicit language, frequent graphic sex scenes.

Amazon.com * Smashwords * All Romance eBooks.

  For more information and a hot excerpt visit Walk on the Wild Side Books

Constance by Franny Moyle

Constance: The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs Oscar Wilde by Franny Moyle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not sure what to think about this one. It's difficult to judge the quality of the writing etc because appreciation of the book is so intimately wound up in one's impression of the subject of the book, Constance Wilde and by association, Oscar.

I found it a compelling read, but it just made me realise how alien the life of these middle/upper class Victorians is to me. I feel sorry for Constance, for a lot of the things that happened to her, and the disaster Oscar inflicted on her... but she's also an infuriating character herself some of the time. She has good qualities, and some not so good ones, like anybody, and of course she's very much a product of her times and her class.

Leaves me wondering how her later life would have turned out if Bosie Douglas had been run over by a horse and cart, and Oscar had been, well, just a little bit less Oscar.

But we'll never know...

View all my reviews